Chart-Topper Certified Seven-Times Platinum: Includes “You May Be Right” “It’s
Still Rock and Roll to Me,” “Don’t Ask Me Why”

Elvis Costello long had a reputation for being the “angry young man.” With
apologies to the former Declan McManus, he had nothing on Billy Joel’s Glass
Houses. Fed up with inexcusable critical backlash and believing he’d still not
been regarded as a serious artist, Joel ratcheted up the angst on the 1980 set
that, oh, by the way, happened to sell another seven-million-plus copies and top
the Billboard charts. Revenge is sweet.

An integral part of Mobile Fidelity’s Billy Joel catalog restoration series,
Glass Houses is mastered from the original master tapes and made available on
fully transparent hybrid SACD. Honing in on producer Phil Ramone’s
radio-tailored albeit looser, straightforward production, this edition opens up
the previously veiled soundstages, spotlights the clean yet raucous
arrangements, and decongests the imaging so that every note comes to the fore.
Thanks to DSD technology and meticulous remastering, Joel’s urgency and
temperament have never sounded so vibrant.

In addition to firing shots at detractors, Joel further solidifies his
reputation as a pop maestro on the hit “Don’t Ask Me Why” and mellow classic
“C’etait Toi (You Were the One),” each replete with sparkling structures and
shimmering melodies. Throughout, he dials down the grand gestures, focusing more
on an attitude and directness. At the time, Joel was conscious of the punk
movement, and seems inspired to follow that genre’s preference for simplicity,
frankness, and irritability. The album’s legendary artwork—the singer preparing
to toss a brick through the windows of his house—is a metaphor for Joel
shattering his image as a cocktail-lounge pop crooner.

Such changes are evident in the now-signature “You May Be Right,” a hard-rocking
and scathing rebuttal to a romantic partner on which Joel embraces the identity
of a tough-skinned madman that won’t stop at anything. He inhabits the role with
convincing theatrics, his voice mixing pushiness, smugness, self-evident humor,
and cool that fits the resistive tone of the record’s songs. Glass Houses is
Joel’s megaphone for stubborn independence, dogged assertiveness, and blustery
confidence.

It’s also an announcement of artistic intent, a statement that’s simultaneously
catchy and barbed, well-crafted and rowdy. And it succeeds on all levels,
bringing to commercial pop-rock a brashness and grit often absent from fare that
sticks in your head for days. Joel would never be seen the same way again.

Selections:
1. You May Be Right
2. Sometimes A Fantasy
3. Don't Ask Me Why
4. It's Still Rock And Roll To Me
5. All For Leyna
6. I Don't Want To Be Alone
7. Sleeping With The Television On
8. C'etait Toi (You Were The One)
9. Close to the Borderline
10. Through The Long Night